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Yes, the freshest, most flavorful salad dressings are the ones you whip up yourself. But sometimes, that's just not in the cards. Enter Trader Joe's refrigerated dressings in three mouth-popping flavors.

"Most refrigerated dressings are heat pasteurized for safety," says Trader's website. Instead, these newbies use "very cold water and very high pressure to achieve the same food safety results, without cooking the ingredients. The result is a dressing with big, bold, bright flavors." They ain't kiddin'.

And you won't find any xanthan gum or Yellow 5 food dye or modified food starch. We're talking ingredients like avocado, olive oil, and basil in the Green Goddess, carrots, ginger purée, and miso in the Carrot Ginger Miso, and almond butter, lemon juice, ginger purée, and turmeric in the Almond Butter Turmeric.

A two-tablespoon serving of each dressing has no more than 60 calories, 1 gram of added sugar, and—thanks to those real ingredients—an impressive 110 milligrams of sodium.

We love anything that gets people to eat more greens. But why stop there? Try the Green Goddess on black beans, avocado, tomato, and quinoa. Or the Carrot Ginger Miso with salmon, stir-fried broccoli, and scallions. Or the Almond Butter Turmeric with chicken, apple slices, toasted almonds, and mixed greens.

Way to go, Joe.

Photo: Jolene Mafnas/CSPI.